NASA Exploration Experience on Display During the 2010 Little League World Series

NASA Exploration Experience on Display During the 2010 Little League World Series

NASA Exploration Trailer

By Communications Division
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.
August 12, 2010

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Aug. 12, 2010) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Exploration Experience is an interactive traveling exhibit that takes visitors on a visual journey through the past, present and future of exploration. The exhibit uses 3-D imagery and the latest video technology to immerse visitors into the presentation. This exhibit will be on display at the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, along with another NASA exhibit inside the museum, during the Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 20-29.

“We hope the experience helps people better understand the importance of exploration and the impact NASA technology has on their daily lives,” Outreach Coordinator Kirk Pierce from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said.

The Exploration Experience exhibit will be on display outside the museum and will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 20-28 and between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 29th. The NASA exhibit inside the museum, “Little League and Space”, will be on display beginning Aug. 14-19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Aug. 20-29 between 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

NASA staffers will be on hand to answer questions and discuss some of the thousands of technologies used on Earth as a result of years of space-based research and development by the agency and its partners.

“Exhibit visitors can learn how our quality of life improves as America’s space exploration activities refine existing technologies and develop new breakthroughs in areas such as power generation, computer technology, communications, networking and robotics,” Mr. Pierce said.

Touring the NASA Exploration Experience exhibit takes approximately 12 minutes. The exhibit is wheelchair-accessible. Exhibit visitors also can see what they would look like on the Moon by having their photo taken in a space suit against a lunar landscape.

The “Little League and Space” exhibit features a 3-D Mars wall, a lunar floor and models of the Space Shuttle and rockets.

“NASA’s connection with Little League includes Dr. Story Musgrave, who was enshrined in the Little League Museum’s Hall of Excellence in 1994,” Janice L. Ogurcak, Little League Museum Director, said. “Dr. Musgrave is a Little League graduate from the Boston area.”

The exhibit also will reveal how NASA research has affected sports, particularly baseball. For example, the material used in batting helmets is the same as what is used in space.

In connection with the NASA exhibit, Col. Terry Virts, a Little League coach and the astronaut who piloted the Endeavour Space Shuttle earlier this year, will be greeting the public at the Little League Museum from 2-4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 20. Earlier that day, Col. Virts will be a part of the Opening Ceremonies for the Little League Baseball World Series. The Little League patch he took into space will be on display in the museum.

New this year at the museum is an exhibit “Pittsburgh Pirates Pride,” a display featuring Pirate Major Leaguers who have Little League or Williamsport connections; “The Perfect Game,” which is about the Monterrey, Mexico, team in 1957; and “Little League and the White House,” which chronicles the youth sports organization’s relationship with the executive branch of the United States government since the Dwight Eisenhower era in the late 1950s.

Starting Sept. 18, and continuing through Nov. 14, the museum will host a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. Please contact the museum for the hours for “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.”

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 14 and Aug. 16 through Aug. 19; and noon to 5 p.m. on Aug. 15. The hours will expand during the Series with the museum opening daily at 9 a.m. and closing at 7 p.m., with the exception of Sundays, when it will open at 11 a.m. Admission to the museum is: $5 for adults; $1.50 for children 13 and younger; and $3 for anyone 62 years old and older.